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Friday, September 23, 2011

Did Moshe lie to klal yisroel?

On the last day of his life, the teacher of Israel said, "I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to go out and come in and The LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan."

This statement puzzles the commentators, who note that at the end of the Bible the narrator reports "Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone."

The contradiction is resolved in various ways.

Ibn Ezra suggests that the words I am "no longer able to go out and come in" refer to Moshe's physical strength. Though he retained his intellectual strength, and the force of his personality, he was by age 120 too weak to lead people into battle. With the conquest of Canaan about to begin, a warier-king was required, and Moshe could no longer serve in that role. He died with all of his mental faculties intact, but without the ability to participate in hand-to-hand combat.

Rashi reads the verse this way "I am now a hundred and twenty years old [Full Stop] I am no longer permitted to go out and come [i.e. to continue leading you] in because The LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan." Though its hard to see the justification for this interpretation in English, Hebrew syntax and grammar (arguably) allow it. In particular, Rashi is reading the vav in vaDoshhem (and the LORD) as "because the LORD".

By far the most interesting interpretation is given by Ramban, who says that Moshe told the people he was old and weak only for the sake of comforting them about the impending transition in leadership. Money quote:

ואע"פ שמשה רבנו היה בתקפו ובבריאותו, כאשר העיד הכתוב (להלן לד ז): לא כהתה עינו ולא נס לחה, אמר להם כן לנחמם. And even though Moshe had all his strength and health as it says [at the end of the Bible] he spoke to them in this way for the sake of comforting them.

In other words, Moshe told a white lie.

NOTES
Ramban said neither Rashi nor ibn Ezra are correct, without saying why. I presume he rejects Rashi because he doesn't believe that the vav conjunction can be construed as "because." I presume he rejects Ibn Ezra because he thinks the words "nor his strength gone" must refer to physical strength.

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Quotes

רֹאשׁ דְּבָרְךָ אֱמֶת קוֹרֵא מֵרֹאשׁ דּוֹר וָדוֹר עַם דּוֹרֶשְׁךָ דְּרֹשׁ
Your chief word is "truth"; You've called it out since the beginning. In each generation people interpret You [for themselves] and find [their own] meaning.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd. -Flannery O'Connor

“When in the afterglow of religious insight I can see a way that is good for all humans as it is for me—I will know it is His way.” - R. Abraham Joshua Heschel

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Said behind my back

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